It's taken a long time, but the small business economy is finally shaking off the Great Recession and showing solid gains.  A couple of data points:

- The overall job market is picking up with March's job report showing a gain of 216,000 jobs, and more importantly a gain of 230,000 private sector jobs.  Great quote from an AP story on the numbers:

"We are clearly seeing a breakout in the labor market," said Paul Zemsky, the head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management. "The jobless recovery is ending and we are moving into a job expansion stage of the economy."

- As reported by Business Week, data from the Intuit Small Business Employment Index as well as from Paychex and ADP all show small business hiring growth in March. 

This doesn't mean the small business economy has fully recovered.  For example, March's Discover Small Business Watch sentiment index showed a decline.  And, of course, there are a lot of risks to the overall economy (Japan, the falling dollar, rising oil prices, middle east unrest, etc.). 

But the overall trends point up and some are even suggesting it's time for small businesses to think about taking advantage of the recovery.